The party reunites in the elevator, which Sid operates once more to send the party on a somewhat shaky ascent further into Gordias. It's only about ten minutes before the room shudders to a stop, and the path before you opens, revealing a large, circular hall about twenty feet in diameter.

Almost immediately before you is another large hatch like the one that barred your way in the hangar. However, there appear to be no threats in the immediate vicinity.

Though Torinn's attack against the jagd doll goes wide, the doll's counter-attack likewise is horribly inaccurate. The goblin, however, manages to slice through Torinn's other dwarven boot to strike at the dragonborn's heel. The warriors suddenly turn and seem very focused on running to the elevator as quickly as they can.

Torinn uses brash strike with mocking smite, missing jagd doll 2 for 5 psychic and radiant damage. He moves away, and the jagd doll tries an opportunity attack that misses. Goblin 5 takes an OA, critting Torinn for 19 damage (reduced to 14).
Goblin 5 takes 5 cold damage and is slowed until the end of its next turn. It double-moves.
Goblin 7 double-moves.

"Get the hell out of here!" the ranger says, notably annoyed from the exhausting battle.Quarry jagd doll 2
Twin strike (one crit for nice 54 damage and another hit for 25,
this is before punishing eye)
Symbol of glory, triggered by my crit, I get one Action Point
I get THP I believe
Move out of bomb blast

Sureiya sticks one of Nightfall's twin blades directly through the chest of the damaged golem, and the seeker drone launched by Sid doesn't even need to fire, as it's clearly out of commission from the first brutal strike. As the doll slides off the artifact blade, it comes apart at the joints, clattering to the ground a mess of scrap. The ranger then slips away to avoid the exploding bomb.

The shaman quickly infuses Myn for a quick attack against the remaining jagd doll, and even as his blast hits she moves away and sustains her spirit, moving directly between the goblin and the elevator.

The bombs explode loudly, scorching those unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast radius, and even as the smoke is clearing, Sid is doing his best to further augment the party's ability to destroy the remaining jagd doll. However, the goblin directly next to the shaman issues a command:

(Goblin) "Sssh-thock... boom-blast her! Now! We show uplanders what gobbieflock can do!"

In unison, the eyes of the remaining two goblin warriors, the jagd doll, and both BOOMtype Gobwalkers focus onto the shaman that unfortunately blocked the fleeing warrior's path. The doll immediately launches an electric javelin in her direction, and the resulting explosion of electricity fully engulfs her. She does manage to retaliate, with a quick archon infusion empowering Torinn to swiftly strike at the jagd doll--though amazingly it doesn't appear to yet be severely damaged. The larger gobwalkers then open fire, and Bernkastel catches one of the boom cannon barrages full-on, leaving her with a bloody wound beneath her armor. However, it's clear that half of the barrage was ineffectual--if it had hit, the shaman would surely be on the ground now.

Sureiya's twin strikecrits jagd doll 2 for 54 damage with twin strike, destroying it. He then moves out of the bomb radius.
Symbol of victory grants him an action point, and he gains 10 THP.
The shaman uses direct the strike, and Myn's eldritch blast hits jagd doll 3 for 19 damage. The shaman moves and sustains call forth the spirit world.
The bombs explode, missing everyone but jagd doll 3. Jagd doll 3 takes 41 fire damage (reduced to 21), the boomtypes take 10 fire damage. Sid and his gobwalker take 14 fire damage.
Sid uses magic weapon, hitting jagd doll 3 for 13 damage, and granting Myn and Sureiya the magic weapon buff. He also hits the jagd doll with heavydoom, and it is slowed (save ends). He then moves.
Jagd doll 3 moves, and uses blitzstrahl, hitting Bernkastel for 20 lightning damage. Bernkastel counters with vengeance is mine, and Torinn moves and hits the jagd doll 3 for 12 damage with a melee basic attack.
The boomtypes both attack Bernkastel, one miss and one hit for 24 damage.

Though Myn's blast savages the jagd doll, and it looks quite the worse for wear now, the goblin warrior proves to be a capable sniper and lands a finishing blow on the shaman despite Torinn providing cover and the distance involved. However, as the shaman begins to fall, Sid quickly uses a powerful artificer healing infusion to catch her and restore her vitality, which also provides protective energy shields which materialize around Torinn and his own gobwalker. The second blow from the gunblade staggers the shaman, but she remains standing, and the goblin retreats into the elevator.

Torinn smashes the jagd doll with his weapon, then strides past it. The doll whiffs at him as Rutger gallops over towards the goblin that threatens Bernkastel. He places his divine challenge on it, then holds his weapon at the ready, boxing the creature in. "You weren't planning on harming her in some silly display of bravado, were you?" he threatens.

Torinn's telling blow against the jagd doll leaves it reeling, and its halfhearted attempt to bash him as he flies away merely scrapes off the dragonborn's armor. His sacred challenge against the goblin confronting the badly wounded shaman stays the goblin's hand, and it makes a noise of frustration as it flees, only to suffer a blow from Torinn's sunblade, punctuated by a shot from Sid's seeker drone.

That goblin is looking in pretty bad shape, but from beneath the mechanical legs of the gobwalkers, the last remaining warrior lines up a shot that takes the shaman square in the shoulder. Her body can no longer take this punishment, and she collapses to the ground, dying. The goblin lifts its helmet, and blows the smoke from the barrel of its gunblade.

Just a few moments ago, Sureiya holded some respect towards the goblin soldiers, but surely they weren't confident in being able to fight them fairly, they just tried to overpower them through sheer numbers.
Sureiya sees the Shaman fall, and instinctively moves forward to violently finish off the goblin, staying silent,
just staring at the goblins attempting to retreat.

Move speed close to goblin 5
Quarry goblin 5
Twin strike (ranged): (if there's CA from spirit, one hit for 33 and another for 25, otherwise one hit for 33)

With fury in the half-orc's eyes, he dashes into the fray and hurls his blades, which cut down the heavily-wounded goblin warrior that issued the kill order. The shaman's body is failing her, however, and Sid looks panicked about that. His panic only escalates as suddenly his gobwalker refuses to obey his commands, and seems to be...

"Great googly-moogly, get clear! She's about to blow!"

Sid scrambles out of the cockpit and rushes to Bernkastel's side, even as the jagd doll mindlessly continues to close the distance and roughs the half-orc and half-elf up with another hurled electric javelin.

With the warrior downed, the BOOMtype pilots decide that enough is enough, and withdraw into the elevator. Once all its still-living companions are there, you hear the technician operate the elevator once more, and the mangled doors shudder as they slide shut, and you hear the elevator begin its slow ascent.

All that's left now is to put down the last rampaging golem.

Sureiya moves, then uses twin strike (ranged), hitting the bluetruth warrior twice, for 33 damage and 27 damage. This finishes it.
Lair action trigger. Sid's gobwalker is immobilized, and will self-destruct in 1 round (on the next lair action).
Sid dismounts his gobwalker, and moves next to the shaman.
Jagd doll 3 moves, and uses blitzstrahl, hitting Myn and Sureiya for 18 lightning damage.
The BOOMtypes move into the elevator. Once all its living, non-jagd doll allies are in the elevator, the technician's readied action triggers, and it activates the elevator, closing the doors.

"Hey Sid. Could you take care of the Shaman, please?" the ranger asks, still visibly angered. Then he goes back to the gate they used to get inside and takes for himself the gunblades of the unconscious warriors.

"What do you think of these weapons, Torinn? They aren't that strong, but their technology is good."

Then he looks back on the goblins, and says, "These two are still breathing, my fault. Should we spare them in exchange for some information?"

Take gunblades and inspect them. Then check if the two unconscious warriors have anything else to loot or remove,
then tie them with hemp rope.

>>78725Torinn himself is shaking a little at how easily the goblins got past him and took down his comrade. He glances at the gunblades, then shrugs. "I don't know. Right now I just want to get out of this area before they think to send reinforcements."

Sid looks at Torinn, then considers briefly before responding, "Er, I have no idea where it could lead. But as for if I could operate it... yes, almost certainly!"

Sureiya's investigation of the goblins tells him they're carrying little on their individual persons aside from their weapons and armor, with belt pouches. It would appear any additional supplies must be kept elsewhere in Gordias. The gunblades are one-handed superior weapons with the versatile, small, and load free properties that can be used in both melee and range (as projectile weapons). They have a melee reach of 1 and ranged 15/30 for ranged attacks, and their damage die is a d8. None in your party (with the possible exception of Sid) are proficient with the weapons, though their proficiency bonus is +2.

"Yet, the room to our rear offers little visibility, and it is not as if the enemy will lose track of us. Moreover, if they were to possess additional explosives, no doubt they would have used them by now. As such, this room is most suitable for a rest."

As the group takes a breather, Sid looks around nervously. He eventually decides to engage the rest of the party in conversation, saying, "That was... well. There are a few things we should probably take from that. First, we should not underestimate Bluehand and his gang. They may seem like scrappy goblins, but they have a ruthless and elitist streak and access to powerful Imperial technology. Second, I think the rest of you must have guessed this by now, but with that kind of firepower there's no way they wanted our help to defeat Gordias' guardians. No, they wanted us here for... some other purpose." He pauses for a moment, shakes his head, then continues, "Third, and maybe it's related, but ever since we heard that voice... I feel like the place has 'woken up', so to speak. Those bombs that plagued us in the last battle just seemed to pop in out of thin air--as if summoned. By whom? I think it's likely at Bluehand's whim, but he did it using the power of Gordias itself. That's why we could hear his voice. He must be trying to take control of Gordias even now. We need to shut down the Knot before he learns to harness the machine's full potential!"

At this point, the party is fully rested, but feel free to respond, or discuss how to progress.

Sid considers both inquiries. "I... don't think it's a trick. This is only a piece of the larger construct--there's bound to be things going wrong. But as for misleading us on that particular point... I think that's unquestionable at this point. If there were stronger machines that he wanted us to deal with, then why turn on us now?" The tinker gnome then turns to face Myn and says, "Our ultimate goal is to reach the Knot. But if we were to take a route Bluehand won't expect, that might help us in the long run avoid his traps and further goblin-led attacks." Nodding to the leftmost elevator, the still-open empty once, he says, "No doubt Bluehand expects us to take the most direct route--the opposite hatch. But we also don't know where this lift leads. It'll be risky either way, but given what we've seen in regards to Bluehand's control over Gordias, I'm in favor of trying to confuse him as much as possible."

"If his predictive ability is as advertised, efforts to confuse Mister Tribunus may be wasted. While I would thus prefer the shorter route, in light of our lack of information, deferring to a group decision is acceptable."

Sid looks over to the shaman a bit skeptically, but does say, "Well! That'd certainly be... unexpected, at the very least! It's an option to consider." Glancing at Myn, Sid replies, "I remain skeptical of Bluehand's ability to predict the future--it seems to me that an all-seeing entity wouldn't be issuing orders to destroy us, which are then foiled by us!"

>>78744"Mr. Sturmgust, you said they're low on manpower, so I'm guessing they would not have many secure locations for their retreat. I would guess they merely returned to Mr. Bluehand and his alleged elites..."

The shaman pauses here, and looks up to the ceiling. "...Also, you said... the voice from earlier was your daughter? I guess the necessity of your presence is related to that."

"You mentioned that we may be needed here for some purpose, Mister Sid. Surely we would be more manageable after attrition from combat, or perhaps merely the delay in our arrival may serve some purpose."

"Bluehand is a fraud, and if he's not, then he must be feeling anxious now, of his uncoming defeat." he agrees, looking at Sid.
Then, he looks back at the two goblins he spared, and goes back to the group."Those two should know where the troops retreated, at least."

He goes back with the ded warriors and wakes them up. "Wake up. Time to give us something valuable in exchange for sparing you two."

Sid seems to be lost in thought, carefully considering the words of the rest of the party.

As Sureiya jars the goblins awake, they stir and fidget momentarily, before coming to a full realization of the situation they are in. They then regard Sureiya with a look of defiance, but remain silent.

The goblins' defiance seems to crack as Myn threatens them with the owlbear, and one manages to shout, "Uplanders doomed! Gobbieflock fallback in tech-lab! Gobbies even now rearming, flip-switch more fight-bots! Fate sealed!"

Sid takes in a breath, then says, "Doesn't sound like Bluehand has pulled back all forces to the Knot... he's dispersed them to deal with us!"

Looking to the gnome, the goblin interjects, "Stupid gnome! Biggest, most boomtastic gob-creation plugged into Knot! Even now taking control of god-bot."

>>78752>>78754"...I already figured you needed Mr. Sturmgust present, and the robots seem to be weaker than the goblins, anyway. So where is this biggest creation? Mr. Sturmgust wants to go directly there, and you can save your friends the danger of fighting us. ...Though, I would prefer chasing your friends and finishing them off, so they can't interrupt us later."